Airbnb doesn’t allow reviews on hosts who cancel reservations but felt the need for the public to know about a host who cancelled on us the week before a wedding in Ocean Beach, California just so you can be aware this may happen to you should you try to book with this host. Name: Dan Correa Property: Cozy Sunset Cliffs Ocean View Condo Location: San Diego, CA (Ocean Beach) If this property is available to reserve, beware the owner may cancel on you without prior notice or explanation. Now, we’re left with trying to find a place to stay for a family wedding in one week.
Author Archives: Pissed Wedding Goer
Hali the ‘river gypsy’ operating a slum-boat in North Amsterdam
This report follows on from my report about Shay Hwa in Delft, The Netherlands, ‘Airbnb host never showed up.’ As a result I had to make several other Airbnb bookings. I booked to stay with Hali at her boat in Amsterdam on the 1st to the 3rd of September 2015. I arrived at the location by appointment at 3pm on the afternoon of the 1st September. The location is an old sailing boat which is very characteristic. I made an error when I made this booking, apparently there is no shower on the boat but there is one available quite nearby. This in itself was not a real problem. It was still summer and there is always some novelty when staying at an Airbnb location. One unexpected issue would not cause me to cancel. I was very disappointed that the interior of the boat was very cluttered, very untidy and dirty. The shared sleeping quarters absolutely stank. There was also no source of running mains water on the boat. There was also no place to securely put luggage or a place it where it could be supervised by the sole volunteer who was in charge of the boat. I left my luggage in a cupboard and took all my valuable items with me and found a location nearby where I could send the owner of the boat an e mail. I sent a message which was polite and conciliatory given that she is using her Airbnb income to fund the restoration of the boat, which seems like a worthy project. I cancelled the booking because then the owner would have a chance to re-book with another Airbnb customer. I then spent some time trying to organize alternative accommodation. When I returned to the boat at nearly 9pm to pick up my luggage I discovered that it had been moved from the cupboard where I had put it and placed in a common area of the boat, visible to any person who wanted to look inside it or pick it up and take it. I have a lot of experience of staying in cheap accommodation such as hostels. I do not mind basic and simple accommodation with fewer conveniences but the standard of this accommodation was very bad. Earlier in the day I was in a more sympathetic frame of mind but by 9pm I had wasted yet another day of my vacation. The owner of the boat had obviously informed the volunteer staff member on board that I was not staying, which is why they moved my bag. Moving my luggage is not an acceptable or appropriate thing to do, an immediate violation of privacy. By the time I returned to the boat at nearly 9pm, the owner had not replied to my messages from circa 3.40pm in the afternoon. The owner replied the next day to say that she acknowledged that the condition of the boat did not meet my standards. The problem is that she did not take any responsibility for setting a reasonable standard or for admitting that there were things that were actually wrong with the location. This owner is operating a very low quality form of accommodation. There is a difference between something that is cheap and not unpleasant to stay in and something that is poor quality. I think that the description of the boat which the owner gives as a restoration project is intended to make the potential customer think that the owner has values about the accommodation they are offering and that it will have a lot of character, when my experience today was distinctly that of a ‘don’t-care’ attitude. The boat is located on a canal opposite which is the main road from central Amsterdam. Actually visiting this location is not really at all like the description and rustic-looking photos on Airbnb. There were also people living on the river-bank close-by who looked like very deteriorated homeless people. In all this is not a pleasant place to even visit quite different from the rustic impression given in the listing. I cannot e mail airbnb as their support email is bouncing but inquiries are being made about a refund.
Airbnb host never showed up
I had a plan to stay in Delft, the Netherlands for ten days, starting on the 25th August 2015. I flew from the UK and kept an appointment at 3pm on that day. The host Shay Hwa did not turn up. I tried to call, sms and email via airbnb. I spent five hours in Delft, the weather deteriorated and I had to find a hotel room in Amsterdam at extra cost very quickly and pay for train travel there. When the host mailed me via airbnb that evening it transpired that he was in Malaysia and he had presumed somebody would open the front door and let me in. I knew nothing of this and there was nobody to let me in. I returned to the address several times during the few hours I was in Delft and there was nobody present in the house. Having to find a hotel at very short notice on a rainy night and then finding alternative accommodation via airbnb was very stressful and I wasted a lot of my vacation this way as I needed to make several bookings. Airbnb did reply to my e mail very quickly, they offered me a full refund or credit plus a £50 credit. Shay Hwa is an incompetent person who I think failed to even understand the problems he has caused me, even wishing me a good stay in the hotel I had to book in Amsterdam, against my will. The man is an idiot and should not be trusted with anything that affects other people.
Filthy and Overpriced
Rented a carriage house in Kerhonkson, NY. Upon arrival we knew we had made a mistake. The property was not close to ANYTHING and you couldn’t even get cell service for miles around the property. When we entered the carriage house, we saw that it was absolutely filthy. Dirt covered floors, dead and live insects everywhere and cob webs nearly everywhere you looked. We had no choice but to stay as there was a horse show in the area and every hotel was sold out. I felt like I had bugs crawling on my skin the entire time we were there. We told the owner that the unit had not been cleaned once we left because we could not get a signal beforehand and that we at least wanted the $100 cleaning fee refunded. She kept trying to drag it out saying she wanted to speak on the phone and not via text. We later found out that this was because she wanted enough time to pass so that we couldn’t get any money back from AirBNB. Now we are not getting any responses from her. Don’t rent from Mo in Kerhonkson NY or in Massachusetts. She’s a con artist.
USD AMEX conversion SCAM
Several weeks ago I booked a trip for my family, we didn’t want to travel to the US like we normally do because of high conversion rates so we booked a “local vacation” on airbnb. Our account price is set to CAD and language to ENGLISH, we have a Canadian billing address and a CANADIAN issued American Express which we used to book. We booked a Canadian host. we just got our card bill and got a 200+$ conversion charge to USD (from $640 to $867!!) When we look at our AirBnb receipt and even in our transaction records it says it was 640 and our account profile is definitely set to CAD and the hosts currency is definitely set to CAD. I chatted with customer service and they said it was because we use an American Express card and it HAS to be charged is USD. This is ridiculous and I phoned American Express Canada and they said that makes no sense whatsoever as my card is a Canadian issued card and they have moved forward with disputing the charge and are going to investigate. I just can’t believe how ridiculous this is. I was a big fan of airbnb’s business and model and now I’m treated like an idiot because I foolishly assumed that if I booked a Canadian room on the Canadian site with my Canadian Billing address and my Canadian AMEX card with my profile setting set to CAD dollars and language set to English that I would be charged in Canadian dollars! C’mon air bnb!
Host account deleted by Airbnb but they forgot to tell guests
My host account was entirely deleted by Airbnb with no warning, no explanation, and any attempt to find out why has lead to the same automated email stating they do not have to give me any reason and will no longer communicate with me. Fast forward one week later (today) and a guest traveling all the way from Australia (and his wife traveling from Mexico) to my place in the US contacted me via email and phone this morning to touch base about their reservation with us this weekend. They obviously did not know their trip has been canceled. I’ve also been steadily receiving normal emails from Airbnb like “you have an upcoming reservation!” etc. I used Airbnb’s emergency contact phone number to try to sort this out and was told they would “put in a ticket about it” to another department and could not help me further because I “have no account”. A few hours later I got the SAME auto generated email about “your account has been deleted and we don’t have to tell you why” with nothing about the fact that strangers are planning to show up to my house. I call their emergency phone number again and had to explain the entire situation again and beg for them to not hang up on me or “put in another ticket” and they reluctantly told me their only advice was to contact the guest and let them know their reservation is cancelled and give them Airbnb’s emergency phone number. Which I did, and now i’m crossing my fingers these guests get the email and don’t show up to my house since they already have my address and all contact info. This is the most infuriating situation i’ve ever been through with any company of any kind. The lack of customer support, not just for me, but for guests that have already paid and are traveling across the world is utterly INSANE and dangerous! I feel very bad for this couple that had planned to stay with me, and I hope Airbnb does not completely screw them over too.
Dirty Airbnb in Chicago
On a long vacation with my wife and 2 kids, I did enjoy an spectacular apartment in South Boston using Airbnb. Next we flew to Chicago, using Airbnb again, I found a “CAVE”, dirty and a totally mess! I immediately left that disaster and notified Airbnb about that situation. They encouraged me to talk with the owner, I told her about the mess and dirt, she never disputed this issues. I sent pictures to Airbnb, some was really shocking and I felt confident about my refund. Airbnb answer my request, giving me back 27% of my fee, telling me that I cannot prove my complaint and this is it. Because I canceled my reservation, of course, I can not write a review about my horrible experience and warn other users about this scary situation.
NEVER Again Will We Use Airbnb
NEVER Again will we use Airbnb. You THINK you are getting a better deal than staying at a hotel. NOT THE CASE. You can literally find yourself not only paying for commission charges from Airbnb, and the per-night charge from the ‘host’, you leave yourself wide open to a ridiculous security deposit, and claims of all sorts by the hosts of the place you might stay. We were using airbnb since 2013 and we have had fantastic experiences with many hosts, but it was only down to pure luck. If a lunatic / neurotic host decides to ruin your holiday, they can! They claimed that we destroyed (with shower steam ) their baby’s paper planes that were hanging above a changing mat it the bathroom (that should not be left there at a first place) , stained two of their towels with some dirt they couldn’t remove and apparently spilled something on the floor and damaged the laminate. (No one of us remembers anything of this). Nonsense!!! ..airbnb sided with the host, and wants to charge $600 the security deposit to my Visa card. They didn’t even bother to show me the pictures that the host presented as ‘evidence'”. We were not even allowed to dispute their decision!!! I called my bank and spoke with a supervisor, and I hope to be able to stop this totally unexpected and unfair charge out of nowhere!!! . I totally lost my trust to this company. Would you valued me as a client , you would have to compensate me, for putting me through this hellish nightmare! My previous positive experience with other airbnb hosts made me believe that this was a trustworthy company. Alas! They are NOT worth your trust! This would have never happened with a holiday park, a hotel or a proper B&B. This Christmas our holiday will be with a holiday park in the Netherlands. NEVER Again will we use Airbnb.
Do NOT rent from SOFIA KASIANENKO, Brooklyn, NY
Do not EVER rent from Sofia Kasianenko in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NYC (30 Rogers Ave, Apt 3D), you will regret it! Link to listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2477728 User: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/2959577. Stayed at her place for a month – turned out to be a complete utter nightmare. It was so bad that AirBnB even refunded our money, given how notorious they are for not doing so. Thank god for our credit card company who resolved the dispute in our favor as well. She is a young Russian lady in her mid 20s – a consummate liar and scamster who had the audacity to rent her apartment out to guests even though she did not pay RENT to her landlord for TWO whole months. Soon after she handed us the keys, she flew off to Russia for a whole MONTH and ignored all our problems entirely. We could have been kicked out from the place by the landlord because rent was due — she couldn’t care less, and rented it out so she could make a quick buck off unsuspecting guests. Had the landlord not slipped a demand letter under the door, we would not have known. At first glance, her place looked fine. But it turned out to be an absolutely filthy and disgusting dump because it was infested with COCKROACHES, FLIES and SILVERFISH because of how dirty and unhygienic she is. We killed about 12 flies a day. She kept denying that there was a pest problem — and it gets better – she accused us of lying and causing the fly/cockroach problem when she was the one that had been living there for 2 years! As if we could conjure flies out of thin air. The place also had huge DUST BALLS, GRIME, BROWN STAINS and feathers gathered in the corners because she was so lazy that she didn’t even try to clean before we got there. I had to spend my own money to get a vaccuum cleaner because my asthma attacks started coming back again. It was so filthy that if you walked on it without socks on, you would have to wash your feet ASAP because grime would STICK on your feet. Thirdly, her neighbor upstairs would not stop making tons of noise every single night. We woke up almost every night. When we complained about all these problems, Sofia did not even care or act concerned. She completely denied all the issues we brought up – late rent, pest, noise and dirt problems — and accused US of causing them. She also lied in her review of us, saying that we stole one of her keys and that she had to change her lock (though I don’t see why she has to change her lock when she has another copy of the keys available). Presumably so she could lie her way into keeping our security deposit. Unsurprisingly, this brazen liar left us a horrible review for us, to which we responded and offered to show her future guests PICTURES and PROOF of her nasty cockroach-ridden dump of a place. This story has a happy ending because we got a refund from both AirBnB (which is super rent) and our credit card company after we showed them videos and pictures of the pests and noise. So beware, DO NOT RENT FROM THIS con artist liar, Sofia Kasianenko in Crown Heights, Brooklyn! I’m surprised her landlord hasn’t kicked her out already for illegally renting her apartment out and being such a filthy, unhygenic slob. Pics of pests and her filthy apartment attached.
Airbnb Host kicked off of platform and never told why
Some background. I have no idea, whatsoever, why I was kicked off the platform. I had many excellent reviews and a 4 star rating. I had 6 properties (all owned by me and manged by me) on the platform. I asked repeatedly what I did and they stated “Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed.” They would never answer my question as to why. I received a text from Daniel Rusteen on August 20th, who saw my Craig’s List postings for my properties and asked if I would like to use ABB. He was paid for and taxed with the responsibility of generating new hosts for ABB and would give me a $500 credit to be used as a guest at any ABB listing. I texted back how funny this was as they kicked me off. He stated he had “pull” with ABB and could definitely get me re-instated. He asked for my dirver’s license so he could establish a new account and used one of my properties. Long story short, once I went into the new account to add content to my listing (and then add my other 5 listings), I was blocked. When I wrote and asked why I received: Katie C, Aug 25, 20:46: Hi Lucia, Thank you for getting in touch with us about your account. As we mentioned to you on January 5, 2016 and then multiple times following that date, we have removed you from our community for violations of our Terms of Service. This includes any previous account you created on our platform, and extends to any future account you make. As per our Terms of Service, Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and must inform you that, moving forward, we will no longer be able to assist you with your account issue. Please feel free to review our Help Center article for further information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/432 Thank you for your understanding. Best regards, Katie C www.airbnb.com/help This is the same message I received in the past and the one to which I questioned the reasoning as to their decision making. As you can see, I still can’t understand what caused this to occur in January. Regardless, I moved forward with VRBO for some of my properties and moved to long term rentals for others (thus CL). I’m much happier with VRBO. They support the hosts better, have much better customer service that responds quicker and costs less.